First the Good News .....

[Guest]

It's obviously wonderful that the two Italian aid workers were released on Tuesday, along with two Iraqi's who were taken hostage at the same time, and four Egyptian Nationals taken hostage in a separate incident.

But I think it's also important to remember that there are many other hostages (both Iraqi and Foreign Nationals) still being held.

The current list of Foreign Nationals being held hostage reads as follows :

10 people taken hostage today (30.09.2004) – six Iraqi’s, two Lebanese and two Indonesian women. They are apparently being held by the ‘Islamic Party of Iraq.’

- TURKEY : 10 hostages still in captivity.. A group called "Brigade salafist Abou Bakr Al-Seddiq" is apparently still holding these people captive.

(Despite the release of other Turkish hostages, and the recent release of Ayutullah Gezman, the above-named are still listed as being held.)

- AMERICA: Three Americans are reported missing, of which the soldier Keith Maupin, untraceable since an attack against its convoy on April 9 in the west of Baghdad, is one. At the end of June, a group had announced his "execution" in an official statement and provided a video which was not considered to be "conclusive" by Washington. Two employees of the American company Halliburton, Timothy Bell and William Bradley, are also reported missing since this same attack.

- LEBANON: The lawyer of a Lebanese travel agency, who has been working in Baghdad, was taken captive and it was announced, on September 18 that three Lebanese working for the same voluntary agency him, had disappeared for 12 midnight in Iraq.

- FRANCE : Two French journalists George Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot were abducted on August 20 by the Islamic Army in Iraq, who asked France "to cancel the law on the veil" in their schools.

- GREAT BRITAIN: A British Citizen, Kenneth Bigley, was taken hostage on September 16 in Baghdad by the group of Islamist Jordanian Abou Moussab Al-Zarqawi, with two Americans, Eugene "Jack" Armstrong and Jack Hensley, who were decapitated by their kidnappers September the 20 and 21.


- SYRIA: At least two Syrians are still retained as hostages in Iraq: A driver Mohammad Al-Joundi, was abducted on August 20 with the two French journalists, and Hassan Awaad Mohammed, truck driver, was abducted on August 14 close to Kirkuk (north).

-SWEDEN: September 17, the Swedish authorities indicated that two Swedes of Iraqi origin were untraceable and that they had been abducted..

- AUSTRALIA: An Islamist group related to "the Islamic secret Army", affirmed on September 13 that they had abducted two Australians and two Asians- and to have threatened to kill the two Australians if Australia did not withdraw its troops in the24 hours. Canberra did not identify any Australians missing in Iraq. (The Austrlian Government state that all 225 Australian Nationals known to be working in Iraq have been accounted for and it is therefore unclear whether the group who've made this claim are genuine.)

- EGYPT : Despite the release of four Egyptian men on Tuesday, it is now confirmed that two Egyptian Nationals remain in captivity.

- CANADA: A Canadian of Iraqi origin, Rifaat Mohammad Rifaat, at the beginning of April was abducted. There has been no news of him since this date. (Despite the release of another Canadian, Naji al-Kuwaiti.)

- SOMALIA: The group Tawhid wal jihad of Zarqawii announced at the end of July the abduction of a Somali truck driver, Ali Ahmad Moussa. Al-Jazeerah reported on August 2 that the kidnappers had decided to release him after his employer had agreed to cease any activityin this country, but there has been no news of him since that announcement.


I'm sorry to keep banging on about this, but I think it's important that all these people are remembered and that we continue to hope for the release of all hostages.

[Meekon]

Thanks for bringing these to our attention Tessie - I'm sure that others along with myself were not aware that some of these people were being held. Let's hope that they are released soon and can return home to their families and friends. I'll be thinking of them.

[Wully]

I definitely feel that we should not forget any of the hostages, after all they are part of someone's family. But I'm totally against giving any publicity whatsoever to the kidnappers. After all that's their main aim - to publicise their cause whatever it may be.

[Guest]

Yes, I agree that the kidnappers should not be given 'coverage' but it's a hard one. With this day of the internet and mass communication, it would be hard to keep it out of the media and, personally, I believe that open debate about these things is preferable to a D-Notice being slammed on it. Yes, it gives them publicity, but it also detracts from their aims in a way too....... the tape of Mr. Bigley yesterday would appear to have been produced mainly for an Arabic audience who have, by and large, no sympathy anymore with the hostage-takers...... the aim was to draw them 'back in' with the rather obviously staged 'Guantanemo Bay' links ....... if none of this had been in the media there is an argument which would suggest that the Arab world would have had far more tolerance of the kidnappings, NOW they are also very angry about it. And so, in a way, they've been hoisted by their own petard (the kidnappers.)

[Tab]

Tessie, yes I am glad that those girls are back safetly, but at what cost, if the Italian Government has purchased their safe return then they are putting even more people at risk by their action. Now shall we see every little crook kidnapping people just for the ransom, along withe terrorist, just where will it stop.

[snyder]

I think the kidnappings are all about the ransom. In those case, it would seem that some police work could do the trick.

[snyder]

Touche!